Makhzoomi tells the Daily Californian that minutes after the women passenger left her seat, he was escorted from the plane and questioned by security agents, who publicly searched his genital area and asked if he was hiding weapons.

The woman on the plane, he said, thought she heard the word "Shahid," or "martyr," a phrase with associations to the deadly terrorist strikes that have dominated headlines in recent years.

Makhzoomi, who fled violence in Iraq in 2002 after his father, an Iraqi diplomat, was killed, said the process was frightening and humiliating.

“The way they searched me and the dogs, the officers, people were watching me and the humiliation made me so afraid because it brought all of these memories back to me. I escaped Iraq because of the war, because of Saddam and what he did to my father. When I got home, I just slept for a few days.”

According to the Daily Californian, Makhzoomi was issued a refund, but was not offered any sort of apology. He was not placed on another flight home, either.

ATTN: reached out to Southwest, but a representative did not immediately return a request for comment.

Muslim passengers often face discrimination on planes.

Makhzoomi's story is hardly the first of its kind. On Friday, just a day after Makhzoomi's story was highlighted by the Daily Californian, another story of apparent Islamophobia made the rounds. Hakima Abdulle, a Somali woman traveling on a Southwest flight, was asked to get off of the plane after switching seats with a passenger. She was not offered any explanation, the Independent reported.

The stories come as Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. and Europe face increased levels of scrutiny and suspicion following a string of high-profile terrorist attacks, including calls from Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for increased patrols of Muslim neighborhoods.